Quotes by Seneca

It is the practice of the multitude to bark at eminent men, as little dogs do at strangers.

— Seneca

Wisdom

The greatest man is he who chooses the right with the most invincible resolution; who resists the sorest temptation from within and without; who bears the heavest burdens cheerfully; who is calmest in storms, and most fearless under menaces and frowns; whose reliance on truth, on virtue, and on God is most unfaltering.

— Seneca

Courage

The whole duty of man is embraced in the two principles of abstinence and patience: temperance in prosperity, and courage in adversity.

— Seneca

Courage

Nothing is so bitter that a calm mind cannot find comfort in it.

— Seneca

Wisdom

Old age is an incurable disease.

— Seneca

Wisdom

He who boasts of his ancestry praises the merits of another.

— Seneca

Wisdom

There are more things, Lucilius, that frighten us than injure us, and we suffer more in imagination than in reality.

— Seneca

Wisdom

The hour which gives us life begins to take it away.

— Seneca

Life

This body is not a home but an inn, and that only briefly.

— Seneca

Wisdom

Conversation has a kind of charm about it, an insinuating and insidious something that elicits secrets from us just like love or liquor.

— Seneca

Love

Successful and fortunate crime is called virtue.

— Seneca

Success

Anyone can stop a man's life, but no one his death; a thousand doors open on to it.

— Seneca

Life

The pain of a disappointed wish necessarily produces less effect upon the mind if a man has not certainly promised himself success.

— Seneca

Success

Drunkenness is nothing but voluntary madness.

— Seneca

Wisdom

Fate leads the willing and drags along the unwilling.

— Seneca

Wisdom

Those whom fortune has never favored are more joyful than those whom she has deserted.

— Seneca

Happiness

There is no great genius without some touch of madness.

— Seneca

Wisdom

To greed, all nature is insufficient.

— Seneca

Wisdom

He who injured you was either stronger or weaker. If weaker, spare him; if stronger, spare yourself.

— Seneca

Wisdom

It is often better not to see an insult than to avenge it.

— Seneca

Wisdom

Laws do not persuade because they threaten.

— Seneca

Wisdom

The first art of a monarch is the power to endure hatred.

— Seneca

Wisdom

Things that were hard to bear are sweet to remember.

— Seneca

Wisdom

The man who does something under orders is not unhappy; he is unhappy who does something against his will.

— Seneca

Happiness